Summary : Naruto is an Uzumaki, and the son of the greatest seal master of recent history. He's not some ignorant, rude brat who pulls pranks all day long. No, he's an ignorant, rude brat with a budding talent for the most complex of the ninja arts. Fuinjutsu.
Disclaimer : Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, now on to the story!
Sarutobi Hiruzen surveyed the mound of undone paperwork covering his desk. The Sandaime Hokage had been working since his arrival in the morning and had barely made a dent in his workload. He had wanted to finish work early enough to take Naruto out to Ichiraku's Ramen, it was his first day at the Academy. Rather unfortunately for his plan, it seemed that he would be working late into the night to finish the work.
Taking a look at the picture of his successor, he half heartedly cursed the Yondaime for dying and leaving him with the position of Hokage again. After all, while many envied the position, the workload that came with it was both boring and monotonous. Hiruzen lit his pipe as he stood, pondering whether he should take a break from his work.
It was a hard choice, but at the same time it wasn't really a choice at all. When they Yondaime had died, he had left behind many responsibilities. Hiruzen had been called upon to take many of them, and he hadn't shirked his duty, coming out of retirement to serve as Hokage again.
Similarly, Hiruzen wouldn't shirk the other responsibility the Yondaime left him, taking care of his son.
/\\\\\
Hiruzen could only frown as he looked at the young blond boy sitting next to him. Naruto had barely said a word on the entire way to Ichiraku's, which was nothing like the seemingly endless stream of questions Naruto normally had for him. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" the elderly Hokage asked, worried, "Did something happen at the Academy?"
Naruto, normally a ball of smiles and laughter, could only look away at his question.
Sighing, he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Did they make fun of you again, Naruto-kun?" The boy had a bad history of being insulted and bullied by other kids his age. Of course, normally Naruto got angry and ended up giving them a black eye or two.
"It's just…" the boy began, "I try so hard and they… Why don't they like me, Ojii-san?" Naruto looked up at Hiruzen, and he could see the boy trying to hold back tears. "I just want friends…"
He watched Naruto wipe furiously at his eyes. Where had he gone wrong? All he had wanted was for Naruto to have something of a normal life, or at least as normal of a life as someone with a Biju trapped in their gut could have. "Well…" he started with unusual slowness, "They must be rather stupid, to not want to be friends with someone like you." Telling the boy about the Kyuubi wouldn't make the young blond in front of him feel any better, but…
"Tell me, Naruto-kun, did you want to know about the Uzumaki clan?"
Naruto had always wanted to know about his parents. But whenever he asked Hiruzen about them, the only thing he was told was that they had died when the Kyuubi attacked, and they loved him.
"Uzumaki clan?" he whispered, completely floored. "Do you mean like the Uchiha, or Hyūga?"
Hiruzen smiled sadly at Naruto, feeling guilty that he had raised the boy's hopes, "Yes, that kind of clan. The Uzumaki were actually distant relatives of the Senju, one of the founding clans of Konohagakure, and they were feared for their prowess in Fūinjutsu. Unfortunately, that fear led to them being wiped out during the Second Shinobi War."
Upon hearing that the Uzumaki were no more, Naruto slumped down in his seat. "Wiped out, huh?" he whispered, before staring at his feet, "Does that mean I'm the only one left?"
"As far as we know, yes."
Naruto said nothing for a while, before coming to a decision. His hands tightened into fists, their knuckles going white, "You said something about Fūinjutsu, Ojii-san?"
/\\\\\
Many things were said about Uzumaki Naruto by the time he was nine years old. Most of them were bad things. People said he was a troublemaker, that he was a rude brat who needed to learn some discipline. And that was all more or less true.
More importantly, although known to barely anyone, Naruto had inherited quite a bit of talent. It was said that the art of Fūinjutsu was in the blood of the Uzumaki, and his father was the most talented Fūinjutsu user of recent history, so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise.
It did though.
Perhaps it was because when you thought of Fūinjutsu you thought of wise sages, and not mischievious young boys. Perhaps it was because someone who couldn't seem to go through an entire day without sleeping in class didn't seem like the kind of person who would excel in the most complex of the ninja arts. Perhaps it was the word that loomed over the boy, unspoken, like a storm in the distance.
Jinchuuriki.
And so, while the image would have surprised his classmates, his neighbors, his teachers and just about everyone else in between, Hiruzen was not surprised when he saw Naruto hunched over an orange notebook, working quietly with a calligraphy set. The boy was sitting at his kitchen table, a look of concentration spread across his face.
It should've been cute. The small blond was wearing his usual black shorts and shirt, the shirt with the Uzumaki clan spiral in bright red across the front, with his face scrunched up while he squinted at his notebook. It would've been cute, if it hadn't been so eerily reminiscent of another blond boy that Hiruzen had once known.
He cleared his throat, and couldn't help chuckling because of the way Naruto's head shot up to stare at the old man like a deer caught in the spotlights. "Hello there Naruto-kun, sorry for interrupting you." he greeted, giving a nod towards the calligraphy pen suspended in Naruto's hand.
"Ah, Ojii-san, don't worry about it! I was just about to finish up anyways." Naruto said as he got up. "What're you here for? If it was a prank, I swear you can't prove I did it."
"No, it's nothing like that Naruto-kun," Hiruzen denied, "I've actually come to see if you'd like to go on a trip with me. I'll be leaving next week, and I thought you might like to come along."
To say that Naruto was excited would be an understatement. "A trip with you, Ojii-san? Of course!" The fact he would end up missing some very boring school to spend time with his Ojii-san didn't influence his decision at all. "Where are we going?"
"It's just a routine diplomatic meeting, but I find Takigakure to be quite beautiful."
/\\\\\
He could hardly stop grinning for even a minute. Ojii-san had been right, Takigakure was really cool. Naruto wasn't sure if it was the giant tree the village was built around, or if it was the awesome waterfall that you could see practically anywhere inside the village.
Or maybe it was the fact that when people looked at him, they looked at him. Back in Konoha, if someone caught sight of them, they'd mostly just try to pretend like he wasn't there. And it was alongside that thought that an idea hit him. After all, the people of Takigakure didn't know him at all. He'd need to remedy that.
So clutching the ryō Ojii-san had given him, something about seeing the sights, he rushed off to a nearby dango stand. They were almost too sweet for his tastes, he preferred something more salty like ramen, and if he ate too many he always got a stomach ache afterwards, but he was in the mood for something sweet right now. So after purchasing a handful of sticks he ran off towards the waterfall.
Or he would have, had he not ran straight into someone.
The first thing he noticed was that he hadn't dropped any of his dango, luckily. The second thing he noticed, was that she had mint green hair. She also had bright orange eyes. He could respect that, because orange was the best color. The next thing he noticed was also about her eyes.
They seemed familiar for some reason.
But before he could do anything more than realize that, the girl was already apologizing, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, please, I just wasn't paying attention and -"
"Wait a minute," he interrupted, and was confused when she flinched subtly, "that was all my fault. I was really excited about seeing a new village and wasn't watching where I was going."
And there it was again. Those eyes of hers were so strangely familiar, but he couldn't place why. "Ah, well..." she begun, only to trail off, "My name is Fū!"
"Heh, I'm Naruto!" he introduced himself, thrusting his dango filled hand towards her, "Want one?"
She grinned widely, "Sure!"
/\\\\\
He knew why Fū's eyes seemed so familiar to him. It wasn't because of their color, or their shape or anything like that. It was because he recognized the look in them. As they walked down the street, she had agreed to visit the waterfall with him, he noticed the glares.
He was surprised, because he didn't know why they would be glaring at him like that when they hadn't before, but then he realized they hadn't been meant for him. They had been meant for Fū.
Fū's eyes were so familiar because what they showed was like a mirror to his own eyes.
He had tried to keep quiet about it. As much as he just wanted to get angry and loud about it, he was sure it wouldn't help Fū. So instead, he grabbed her hand and started walking faster.
"C'mon Fū-chan," He started, trying to put a grin over the tight frown that had found it's way onto his face, "they're idiots. Let's get out of here."
He didn't turn around to see her face. If he had, he would've seen a look of complete surprise painted across it, that was soon replaced with a small, almost disbelieving, grin. He didn't need to look at her to feel the way her hand tightened on his, like she never wanted to let go. And he wouldn't let go, because, and of this he was absolutely certain, they were friends.
They hadn't known each other for very long, and they knew barely nothing about each other, but they were without a doubt friends. He didn't think that was very normal, although he hadn't any other friendships to compare this one with.
Naruto and Fū were friends because neither of them had any. To them, that was good enough for now.
/\\\\\
He spun the dange stick around in his hand. It hadn't taken long for him to answer Fū's question as to why he acted as he did. Rather, it was taking a long time for Fū to say something, anything really.
It was starting to make him really nervous, like he had messed something up. He didn't like messing up, if there was anything he had learned from studying Fūinjutsu, it was that failing sucked. Failing was frustrating, and it was disappointing. Yes, in studying Fūinjutsu, he had learned that he hated failing.
So he hoped he had not. "Ne, Fū-chan, what's your favorite color?"
She seemed startled at his question. "Well..." she bit her lip as she thought, "I dunno. Never really thought too much about it before. Maybe blue?"
"Blue is pretty cool, but my favorite is orange!"
"My favorite food is Karaage. Especially if its octopus!" And so it went on, the two of them just talking and swapping stories and things about themselves.
It was... nice. Naruto couldn't think of any other way to describe how it felt to just talk with someone, like he and Fū were doing. It was then he decided that, no matter what came, he and Fū would stay friends. When he said as much aloud, she agreed.
/\\\\\
When the Sandaime saw Naruto again, he was glad. It wasn't hard to tell that Naruto had made a friend. Naruto seemed happier, lighter almost, like his burdens had been eased, then he had before he came to Takigakure. The fact that he kept looking at a slip of paper covered with an address was also quite telling.